Hanging with Lennon, jetting with Zeppelin or bandaging GRUEN, continued from p. 1
PHOTOS BY BOB GRUEN
bass player’s wound with some alcohol, then closed it up with some butterfly bandages. That’s one of Gruen’s defining characteristics: He just does it. In fact, that’s also why he was on the bus in the first place. He had asked Malcolm McLaren, the band’s manager, if he could come along at the last minute, and it turned out there was one seat left. “Yeah, I jumped on the bus,” Gruen recalled, during a recent interview in his Westbeth studio in the West Village. “Malcolm said, ‘Come along,’ and I did. It was very spur of the moment — like most things in my life. Malcolm said only 12 could come. They were on a bus in a parking lot ready to pull out. I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time, so I didn’t have to come home. … I woke up 10 days later in San Francisco.” As for his impromptu field surgery on Vicious, Gruen said, “He appreciated it.” As for the tour itself, it was bedlam. “Oh yeah, people threw things at them all over the place,” he said. “They tried to encourage a hostile, anarchist atmosphere.” Gruen’s assessment of the Sex Pistols: “They were just the most obnoxious…. I didn’t know what the fuss was about. They weren’t very good.”
ICONIC ROCK IMAGES In a decades-spanning career, Gruen has photographed everyone and anyone in rock ’n’ roll. Some of his shots are among rock’s most iconic images. At the other end of the spectrum from the Sex Pistols was John Lennon, Gruen’s friend, who famously advocated for peace and love. It was Gruen who captured the signature shot of the ex-Beatle wearing a sleeveless “New York City” T-shirt, and the one of Lennon flashing a peace sign in front of the Statue of Liberty. Gruen grew up just outside New York City on Long Island. His father was an immigration lawyer and his mother a real estate lawyer. “So I grew up knowing how to negotiate,” he quipped. “It’s helpful if you’re trying to get a backstage pass.” As a youth he started taking photos with his dad’s Minolta. His mom’s hobby was photography, so that helped hone his eye. However, without going into detail, he said of his family picture, “The whole thing was a situation I left as soon as I could.” He tried a couple of colleges, but, as he put it, “It didn’t work out.” So, 1965 found Gruen, at age 18, moving to the Village, sharing a Sullivan St. apartment with friends in a psychedelic folk band, the Holy Modal Rounders. “They did the vocals for the movie ‘Bar-
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Tina Turner was dancing off the stage with a strobe light on her in this The story behind how this famous 1974 shot of John Lennon came about 1970 photo. “I opened the camera for like one second,” the photograhas been “embellished” many different ways, Gruen notes. Contrary to one pher explained of how he got the effect. For most photos, the camera popular version, Gruen did not cut off the sleeves right then and there, but aperture is open only 1/60th of a second. had done it several years earlier.
barella.’ That’s their claim to fame,” he noted. His photos of the band caught the eye of the record label’s publicity department, and that got him started on his way shooting top acts, such as Tommy James and the Shondells (“Crimson and Clover”). Gruen went on to photograph Ike and Tina Turner, and thoroughly enjoyed working with them. He said that, at the time, he wasn’t aware of Ike’s abusive behavior toward Tina.
LENNON’S PERSONAL LENSMAN He met Lennon while photographing him for an article. They hit it off and he became the personal photographer for John and Yoko. “When they wanted a picture taken, they would call me,” he said. For example, Gruen took a very intimate shot at the Dakota of a ponytailed John wearing a white bathrobe holding a newborn Sean as a smiling Yoko looks on. But Gruen said he didn’t want that one published in The Villager because it’s too private.
Regarding the photo of Lennon in front of the Statue of Liberty, it was actually Gruen’s idea. Most of his shots aren’t set up or posed, but this one was. It was October 1974. Lennon was 34, Gruen 29. “I took it to help John Lennon in his deportation case,” he explained. “He was the kind of guy I thought we should keep here. I didn’t think we should be throwing him out. I thought we were supposed to be welcoming great artists. Nixon thought Lennon had been thinking of leading a protest against the Republican Convention. Lennon was propeace and anti-Vietnam. And it was the first time 18-year-olds could vote.” Ultimately, the defense proved that the U.S. government had unfairly singled out the singer for deportation. Gruen visited Liberty Island last year, and noticed many people striking the Lennon peace-sign pose in front of Lady Liberty. “In just the short time we were there, a lot of people were copying that pose,” he noted. “I think a lot of people think of John Lennon like they think of the Statue of Liberty — ‘peace and freedom.’ ”
STORY OF THE NYC T-SHIRT As for the T-shirt shot, taken in August 1974, Gruen said there are many inaccurate accounts about it. “People have embellished the story of it,” he said. One version has it that Gruen was about to take the shot, but felt it just needed something more — or less — so he ripped the sleeves off right then and there. “The T-shirts were sold, not in a store, but by a guy on the sidewalk in Times Square,” Gruen explained. “I would buy them, and just cut the sleeves off because I felt it gave it a better New York City look. I used to give them to friends. “Years later, Lennon was back from his ‘Lost Weekend.’ He had a penthouse apartment in the East 50s — he wasn’t back with Yoko. He was back from L.A., sobering up. I didn’t know if he still had the shirt. It was during a session for an album cover.” As for why the photo has become one of GRUEN, continued on p. 9
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